


You Do Know How To Swim?

by Penstakingly



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-29
Updated: 2014-03-29
Packaged: 2018-01-17 11:40:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1386337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penstakingly/pseuds/Penstakingly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A simple mission to retrieve a Prothean data cache from Cerberus turns into a brush with the far past when the team stumbles across ancient ruins.  Shepard and Javik find understanding, and more, through their encounter with a Thoi'han artefact.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. No Ordinary Day

**Author's Note:**

> This was the first fanfiction that I ever published. Yay!
> 
> The concept of Acherusia and the Thoi'han artefact, the characters Ard'oro, E'ranech, Eletania, and Eng'agea, and my own personal Shepard belong to me.Everything else belongs to Bioware/EA.
> 
> Dedicated to FemShep/Jennifer Hale. Thank you, it's been a hell of a journey.

The sound of her heavy breathing cut through the thick, hot air as Shepard glanced up from her cover behind a couple of monstrous roots. Overhead, the view was breathtaking. She and her team of two were on the M-class moon, Acherusia. Though, Shepard mentally noted that, after this mission, she'd strongly petition the galactic survey team to make a whole new category for celestial bodies that were teeming with so much life that even the very air you breathed seemed bent on strangling you from the moment you took your first breath. She slowly continued to tilt her head back, taking in the majesty of the satellite's planet and its two enormous rings dominating the sky. Several other moons were speckled among the rings. One of them was a bright orange ball about the size of Luna at moonrise whose gaseous albedo made it look almost like a second sun in the sky. Though she had been to many planets and had seen many amazing vistas from her life traveling the stars, there were still sights that made her pause in awe and admire their unsullied beauty, a beauty that the Reapers did not care about. And though some worlds would fall victim to the destruction they wrought in their aim to eradicate civilisations whole, beauty would always eventually return, reborn after the ashes of their fires. Try as they might, it was something the Reapers could not destroy whole.

Her admiration was abruptly cut short by the sound of bullets hitting her kinetic barrier. A Cerberus Operator had managed to flank her. "Commander, now is not the time to be admiring the scenery!" Javik admonished her over the comm. She swore and quickly cloaked before the Operator could take down her shields, watching his frantic head movements as she snuck behind him. With a heavy melee, she quickly put him out of his suspense. Nothing. No horror at taking a life, like the first time. Not even the twinges of guilt she used to feel. By now, he was just another number on her unforgivably long kill tally. And she knew it was not healthy.

A pause in fighting afforded her a moment to reflect. Ever since she returned from incarceration on Earth, days and nights and blended into one long diplomatic struggle that brought with it an endless chain of fights on the heels of one another. It was all finally catching up to her over the past couple of weeks. Not just the way things were right now, either, but the entire struggle that began four years ago on that fateful mission at Eden Prime. This was not the first time she had been caught spacing out, but thankfully, not a lot of people had noticed, or she suspected she would already have a mutiny on her hands. Only Garrus had been gently nudging her, though stealing worried looks at her every now and then when he thought she did not notice. And she could feel Liara's eyes boring into her whenever she took the naive-scientist-turned-shadow-broker planetside. They were both wonderful friends, but, despite knowing that they had her back, she felt that sharing something like this would only alarm them, making matters worse. As Samara had once wisely put it, "You carry many burdens, yet you carry them alone. As it should be." But now, Javik knew, and she began to suspect it would only be a matter of time before he threw _her_ out the airlock and assumed command over her forces. She shook her head. _No, I've got to pull myself together. I'm being too paranoid._ Still, she snuck a peak at Javik—only to find that all four eyes were fixed on her. Or more like boring into her.

She blinked and threw her head away, fortunately catching a glimpse of the next wave of enemies. They were a company of about twenty. She had to stifle a heavy sigh. "More incoming," she alerted her team and took off a few paces in front of them, taking point. Something was very wrong with her; it felt as if her limbs were thirty pounds heavier and everything, including her running, seemed to be in slow motion. Then suddenly, she was not running anymore, but careening full-tilt into the ground. Distantly, she heard the sound of a cloak dropping and felt a breeze over the back of her neck. It took a moment to register that she was, indeed, facedown on the canopy floor. A pair of boots entered her peripheral vision about a couple of feet away, sending a jolt through her body that instantly spurred her to action. She instinctively rolled away from them, and it was not a moment too soon, for she heard the distinct sound of something impaling the ground. A phantom had her sword stuck in deep where Shepard's neck had been. All of this action and reaction had taken only two seconds to soak into Shepard's adrenaline-filled brain. In a third, her pistol was whipped out at the ready. Firing two shots in rapid succession, she swiftly breached the Phantom's barrier and was about to fire another shot when the Phantom fell over dead. "Sniped that one!" Garrus crowed over the comm. Shepard would have thrown him a grin, but more enemies were nigh upon her by this point. They were two Cerberus Guardians and one Centurion. Cloaking immediately, she dashed around, whipping out her shotgun. Garrus's overload took care of the Centurion's shields as she closed in for the kill. She made quick work of the two Guardians, who had no idea she popped up right behind them. With a slam, Javik incapacitated the Centurion, whom Shepard finished off with another shotgun blast to the chest. Between Garrus's concussive shot and her cloaking and gunning, they made quick work of the rest of the ground forces.

Shepard gave the all clear, but instead of pushing onward to the cruiser wreckage, she doubled back to where she had fallen, curious about what the hell tripped her. "Shepard?" Garrus looked at her oddly. She came to a halt a foot away from something jutting out of the ground. At first, it looked like a root, but a closer inspection showed her that the object beneath the moss and overgrowth was, in fact, metal. "Commander," Javik's deep voice came a few centimetres from her, "is there something wrong?" His tone seemed to suggest that it was not really a question.

"I was just wondering what made me trip..." She did not need to finish the thought. It was unspoken that if she had not fallen at that very moment, their team would have been permanently short a head. _Her_ head. Today was certainly one of those days. It was a mission that she could do in her sleep, enemies that she had taken out countless times before, and there were not even that many compared to countless situations she had been in before. For goodness' sake, she was no stranger to dire circumstances and loss, even before the Reapers arrived. After all, she had assumed command of her entire unit on Torfan when her commanding officer had a breakdown and lost a lot of good men and women. And she had faced down waves upon waves of enemies at Project Base with no team and slim hope of contacting the Normandy in time to get her off the rock before it smashed into the Alpha Relay. But today... today, a simple mission had, more than once, come a hair's breadth away from a worst-case scenario. Literally. And yet she still felt like a drone.

A heavy sigh escaped her lips. "Come on, let's find the downed cruiser, grab the cache, and get off this hellhole." She fervently wished—no, prayed—that she could just crawl off somewhere relaxing for just two days. Two days—that was all she asked for. Go to a nice sunny beach, perhaps, where she could sprawl out on the sand and sip a nice cold one. Maybe a Molson Golden, if Joker had any left. Collect a few seashells, maybe run tests on them. But the most shore leave had to offer was waking up to the underside of the bar, or worse, in a wet spot of her own drool next to Aria's lap. She needed the fire back in her veins. Not the kind that came from downing three whiskey sours followed by a shot of Ryncol.

Once they were inside the cruiser wreckage, it was only a matter of finding the information cache. She knew it was here. At least she had enough presence of mind to order their hijacked Cerberus shuttle to maneuver and strike the enemy's communications relay first. However, this act had cost them their targeting sensors and Garrus got a couple of second-degree burns from exploding consoles. She had to roughly shove him aside, muttering awkward apologies and a "Stop getting blown up!" as she took control of the guns herself and fire two more shots that took out the cruiser's propulsion and weapons. But their victory was pyrrhic. They were too close when a couple of large explosions rocked the cruiser, heavily singing their tiny shuttle. The inevitable result was an eventual crash-landing of both space-faring vessels on the moon they were orbiting. It was a slow and quiet descent as both sides eyed each other off, unable to do anything with damaged weapons arrays. Fortunately, the shuttle still had some thruster power, which Shepard used to match the speed and descent trajectory of the cruiser.

Fingers now mostly having regained their dexterity thanks to the advanced burn medi-gel, Garrus tapped away at the damaged control panel that would decrypt and upload the invaluable Prothean data cache to their omni-tools. Shepard watched him, unseeing. Her thoughts drifted back to her conversation with him in the forward battery three weeks ago.

_She walked into the forward battery and, looking to her left, caught Garrus typing away at his strategy board. "Hey, Garrus."_

_Garrus turned around from the board and gave her a turian-style grin. "Shepard."_

_She took a deep breath, hoping for a good answer to what she was about to ask him. "Any word from your family?"_

" _They made it off Palaven. It was tight, but they're okay."_

" _That's fantastic!" She beamed and leaned in to pat him on the back. "That must be a weight off your shoulders."_

" _It is. Though this being a war, one burden replaces another." Garrus paused then, shifting slightly and tilting his head downward._

" _What happened?" Shepard asked cautiously, sensing his agitation._

_He turned around to face the strategy board he'd been fiddling with when she came in, and he leaned over it. "I just had to make a tough call with the Primarch. He said our fleets are being decimated. So I advised him to cease all offensive operations against the Reapers."_

" _A full retreat?" Garrus nodded. Her heart sank. This did not bode well._

" _The only way to save Palaven now is to hold our ships back for the Crucible. But if I'm wrong..." his mandibles twitched in agitation, "then a lot of other turian families won't be as lucky as mine."_

_Shepard leaned against the console, next to him. "If it means anything, I would've given the Primarch the same advice."_

" _Yeah, there's that ruthless calculus again." Garrus sighed and straightened up from the railing. "How are you holding up Shepard? This all has to be taking a toll."_

_She took a moment to decide whether or not to be honest. She had to admit, it was getting harder now to keep everything to herself. She had always had an incredible balance kept not only by the happiness that came with saving lives but also by that which came from challenging missions, witnessing strange, new wonders, and going up against the unknown. But gone were those times of "blind optimism"—as Garrus had put it, exploring uncharted worlds, rolling over geth in the Mako while listening to Lacuna Coil, or testing scientific theories in the midst of battle. What got to her was not that she was under pressure to race against time. No, that's how she did her best work. Aw hell, she may as well at least admit it to herself. She missed all the science, the exploration and wonder that cropped up on missions. The nature of the missions had changed drastically even compared to what they had been during her stint with Cerberus. Then, she at least had Mordin to chat with and it was an exhilarating moment on Horizon when he wished her good luck field-testing the Seeker swarm countermeasure. With so many casualties and so much of the same brute running and gunning, her balance had been thrown into flux, the needle—sometimes accelerating, sometimes decelerating but always—moving toward the red zone. She cleared her head, knowing Garrus was waiting for her answer, and decided to allow herself this one levity, trusting that he had her back. "There's only so much fight in a person. Only so much death you can take, before you—"_

" _Before your best friend tries to cheer you up." Garrus's arm now repeated the same gesture she had given him._

" _Cheer? Coming from you?"_

" _Mm. Mood swings." He gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Don't worry, we'll get through this. We always do."_

"Ready when you are, Commander." At first she thought it was the memory-Garrus who spoke, but realizing he had never said that then, she snapped out of her reverie. There was a soft pressure on her shoulder. She looked down and saw three-digit hand resting there and then looked up to Garrus's face. Mandibles were twitching, but his gaze was steady and calm. Reassuring. She smiled back to him. "Well done," she said warmly and then added, "come on, Garr Garr, let's go."

"You know I hate it when you call me that," Garrus drawled, but his voice held a lightness she had not known she had missed during the past couple of weeks.


	2. Among Ruins

Shepard started to think that she might be able to relax, even if she had to breathe heavily, during their walk back to the shuttle. She decided she could settle for a nice little stroll in the jungle if she could not get her beachside fantasy. But no, as usual, trouble was just around the corner. In the wake of their carnage, the local fauna had descended in snarling packs, picking fights with each other—and the approaching trio—for rights to scavenge the bodies. These were no ordinary predators, oh no, of course not. Their skins glowed blue and some of them, the spindly-armed monkey-like creatures, could even throw biotic missiles at them. At one point, Javik ran into a nasty surprise as one of those creatures dropped down from a tree right onto his face and started messing with the Prothean. Okay, she had to admit that it was pretty hilarious watching Javik snarl as he tried to grab the elusive critter running in circles over his body. Apparently, Garrus thought so too, as he hid behind a fallen tree trunk laughing his ass off. Finally, Javik managed to grab it by the tail and throw it off of him with a flicker of green biotics. Needless to say, the creature learned its lesson and slunk off into the bushes.

Once back at the shuttle, Shepard plopped down on a rock with an un-ladylike grunt. "Biotic monkeys," she said, shaking her head. "What's next?" Javik snorted in assent. "I, too, am surprised to see your cousins flinging something other than their own feces." Shepard shot him a scathing look. Garrus balked. "You're going to regret that, Javik," he warned. But as usual, the Prothean scoffed, brushing it off. "You can certainly try to make me, primitives."

Shepard decided that it was not worth the effort, which earned her a head tilt from Garrus. When he spoke, the amusement was telling. "I bet you're wishing you had the Mako right about now," he drawled. Shepard grinned at the memory they both were thinking of. "Hell yeah. Just like old times," she said.

"I don't understand," Javik cut in, so Garrus filled him in about Eletania and how Shepard was so pissed off about having to run around trying to find a prothean data disc off of a pyjak, that she began running over the little vermin until one of them dropped the disc. And Tali—"a quarian friend of ours"—dryly remarked that perhaps it was a little too extreme. Javik let out a dark laugh, startling both Shepard and Garrus. "I would have done the same. The little beast had it coming."

"That's exactly what I said," Garrus chuckled.

As Garrus lapsed into conversation about other missions during their run up against Saren, Sovereign, and the geth, Shepard, still grinning about the Eletania memory, casually scanned the surrounding area. Large trees, the size of Red Cedars back on Earth, made trekking the canopy quite difficult as their enormous roots tangled every which way and created annoyingly tall obstacles and treacherous ankle snares. She sighed. _Roots, roots, roots, monkey, more roots—wait..._ Suddenly the vestiges of the pleasant memory are chased away when she realizes that a lot of what they thought were roots is actually more metal debris, like the one she tripped over during the firefight. She ventured over to the nearest one, not noticing the six pairs of eyes that glanced up from their conversation in curiosity at her sudden departure. It was very large and was bent over an actual tree root. Curiously, she began to peel away some of the moss and found something that finally shattered her doldrums. A strange language was barely visible underneath the rust. "Oh my..." she breathed as two pairs of footfalls approached.

"What is that? Some kind of wreckage?" Garrus queried.

"I think it's part of a hull from a very old ship," Shepard replied, not looking away from the metal. "Very old," she repeated softly, in awe.

Suddenly detecting a presence looming over her shoulder, She flicked her eyes, clandestinely, in that direction. Again, Javik caught her gaze, but this time she returned it. "Do you know what this is?"

"Yes," he breathed and his lips slightly twitched upward. "How intriguing."

She raised an eyebrow, still meeting his gaze. "Care to explain?"

"Today, your life was saved by the ruins of the civilization that came before mine. The Inusannon," he clarified. Shepard's eyes grew wide and Javik smirked.

"You recognize the language as theirs?"

"You don't?"

Shepard snapped her eyes back to the ancient debris and she gaped when she realized that she _could_ read it, her mind translating the ancient, elegant script to Anglicized letters. "Mamihlapinatapai," she whispered, brushing her fingers over the raised letters. The word sounded vaguely familiar, oddly enough. Javik must have been struck by the same curiosity, for they ended up accidentally brushing each other's fingers. At this, she returned her gaze to his. For a few brief moments, they stared at each other as if waiting for the other to say something they were unwilling to suggest themselves. But the moment passed as soon as it had come. Later, Javik would explain that the Protheans were able to decipher the language of the Inusannon from the same plans that were now being used to create the Crucible. Shepard would sigh and say that she wished she could've learned how to read Salarian through beacon technology. Javik would reply that he agreed; there are many things he felt that the species of this cycle were missing out on without the sensory ability he had. And then, they would share that look again. However, at present, she opted for distracting herself from the intensity of his gaze.

It was in this moment that this wish, and more, was answered. A sudden breeze wound its way through the forest floor, and with it came the distinct scent of salt air. Shepard closed her eyes and tilted her head back to inhale more deeply. Javik also took to sniffing the air. "The ocean must be very close," his rumbling voice confirming what she detected. "I think I'm going to take a look," she barely made out before taking off in the direction of the breeze, leaving two startled aliens in her wake.

Beautiful ivory white sand, shimmering in the sunlight, stretched far and away under the clear aqua waves that tumbled upon the shore. Closer to the trees, curiously, the sand blended into a deep, rose colour. But she quickly figured out why, spotting rose granite rocks that rose in small cliffs along parts of the shoreline. And upon closer look, the ivory sand seemed to shift, ever so slightly, to a rosy hue and then back with the breeze working the fine grains. This, combined with the stellar view from the heavens, she concluded, was the _perfect_ seaside vacation spot. Once she dealt with the local vermin, of course. Maybe Acherusia was growing on her, after all.

The voice of responsibility told her that she ought to head back and get the shuttle comm working to send a signal to the Normandy. But once she had tasted the salty air on her lips, she craved taking off her armour and diving underneath the pristine waters. Before doing that, however, she at least retained enough sense to scan the premises for bioactivity and the waters for anything that might be toxic. She had learned early on in her travels that beauty often was a guise for death. Fortunately, unlike the monstrous plant and animal life they had come across, this beach turned out to be quite normal. The water was slightly saltier than the majority of Earth's ocean currents. It had about the same content as the French Riviera, where her mother grew up and had often took her to visit during shore leave. That was where she learned how to surf. It had been years since she touched a board. She held her arms up and stretched. The sun felt _so_ good. "Too bad I don't have one with me now," she sighed aloud.

"Have what?" Javik's voice startled her from her thoughts, making her drop her arms and whirl around. He and Garrus had emerged from the brush, taking in the sights just as she had.

"Ah - well..." she scratched her head awkwardly, and then let out a small sigh. "Nevermind."

She began to back away, turning slowly while keeping a wistful gaze fixed on the sea, but Javik stopped her with his voice. "The water looks inviting, does it not?"

She closed her eyes and silently let out a breath, realizing what he was getting at. She would have been surprised, but the words carried his blessing in them, which was all she had needed at the moment. Someone to not suggest going back just yet, back to the war, the loss, the grief, the pressure constantly threatening to suffocate or break her. Someone to, instead, tell her that it was okay to take five, to take a breather and clear her wits. And the fact that it was coming from _Javik_ , the spartan Prothean Commander, made her feel better about it. It took her only a few seconds to shed her armour and then she took off, beaming and shouting in delight. Nobody saw the wide smile that crossed Javik's face. It was gone by the time Garrus had returned from his short exploration.

Garrus came to a halt a few feet away from Javik and watched their Commander act like a little kid—splashing around, gliding through the water, and doing somersaults. He shook his head, chuckling. She always did manage to find great enjoyment in the little things. He felt privileged to be one of only two people to see his Commander like this. She was happy, _really_ happy, for the first time in a long time and she damn well deserved it, he thought. That, however, was what made what he had to say next feel like he would rather bury his head in the sand. "We should probably get the Normandy on the comm," he stated, slowly, regretful that he had to be the one to shatter the stolen moment, and made to move to get Shepard. However, Javik caught him by the arm. "No. Let her have a few more moments." And then turning his gaze back to Shepard, he added softly, "she needs it."

Garrus did not miss way the Prothean's visage softened as he said that last bit. "Well, I'll be at the rendezvous, you know, in case any of the local wildlife can also repair and pilot spacecraft," he jested lightly and left.

Javik continued to watch his Commander curiously. There were not many times that he could remember ever seeing someone this carefree and happy. He let his legs guide him, meandering right up to the edge of the water. He lazily noted that the waves that lapped at his shoes were slowly sinking him into the sand. "Ah!" Shepard breathed. Javik snapped his head up at this. She was standing waist-deep in the cool water with a smile on her face, lashes fluttering, and skin glistening with water in the descending sun. He watched her toss her wet hair back, smoothing it with her hands and then smoothing the water away from her face. She blinked the rest away and looked at him. He did not consciously realize that just watching her made him feel very relaxed. A protective warmth rose in his chest as he watched over her, keeping his attention also partly fixed on their surroundings.

Shepard suddenly froze and her smile broke into a full grin. He watched, eyes narrowing, as she suddenly darted off toward deeper water, plowing her way to her destination. About twenty strokes out, she stopped and seemed to ready herself for something. His puzzlement then turned to amusement when he watched a flicker of blue build, lifting her up out of the water and catching the motion of the wave. "Impressive," he murmured as she managed to keep her balance for quite a while. She never stopped laughing even as her biotics flickered and faded ***** , sending her toppling into the water. Several moments passed and she did not emerge. Javik felt his chest clench in worry. Did she hit her head on a rock? He reached to undo the clasps that would shed his armour when, he heard her voice calling to him from above and to the right.

"Up here!" She called from atop one of the small, rose granite cliffs. He let out the breath that he had not known he was holding. She was smiling, laughing at him, even. He growled. "Do not do that, Commander! I thought you were drowning!"

She sobered a little at that. "Sorry, Javik. Didn't mean to. But come, look at this!" He shot her a skeptical look, but did as she ordered. He could not be sure at this distance, but he felt there was a suspicious ring to her voice. He mentally noted to read her body chemistry when he got close enough.

The view was even more spectacular from atop the small cliff, his skepticism blowing off him with the breeze. He almost smiled again, but something caught his attention. Shepard pointed at a large globe wedged between the rocks, half submerged, the ocean waves pummelling it. It was not a globe, exactly; it was a silver polygonal surface, comprised of thousands of small triangles. Though it was obviously some kind of metal, there was no rust or visible erosion on its surface. The water seemed to skitter off of it like the droplets on Shepard's skin, he mused, flicking his eyes to the subject of his thought.

Said subject was sliding herself off of the top of the cliff onto the rocks, five feet below, that encircled the polygon. "Commander," Javik said in a wary voice, "we do not know what that is. I would not approach it if I were you." When she did not halt, an annoyed rumble built in his chest.

"Have confidence, Prothean Commander," she smirked up at him, "I scanned it with my omnitool. The metal seems to be fused with some kind of advanced polymer with aid of microscopic mass effect fields. I'll be sending the schematics to EDI so that she can relay them to the Crucible scientists in case they find this of use. Seems to be inert and safe to inspect." Javik made a noise—she could not tell if it was annoyance or disbelief, but she shrugged it off all the same.

Stalking toward the polygon, she took note of its form. It was about ten metres in diameter. She looked down over the cleft between the two immense boulders that flanked it and saw that there was a thick shaft made of the same metal that extended from the bottom of the head down into the water below. It was about twenty metres from where she stood to the water's surface. As she could not make out whatever was underneath, she looked at the readings to learn that the shaft extended beneath the water for another ten metres and then the sand for another five. Furthermore, underneath the sand, the shaft was connected to a platform of about fifty metres in diameter. More staggering readings were coming in, but their perusal would wait for another time because a sudden movement on the surface of the sphere caught her attention. The triangular surfaces seemed to shift in a ripple pattern that passed over the entire structure when she got within reach of it. Extending a hand, she lightly touched the surface, skimming her fingers over its small triangular ridges. It pulsed again underneath her touch, but nothing else happened. Then she heard it—a low whirring noise that must have started off below her hearing range, slowly growing in pitch and intensity. Alarm and curiosity waged a war in Shepard's head. Curiosity won out as she lowered her head slightly and turned an ear to it to be able to pick up the sound better. With the sound also came a building of heat. She pressed her palms firmly to the silvery surface. That was when it began to glow with an orange light and the whirring noise accelerated. Shepard gasped and tried to pull away, but alarmingly discovered that she could not remove her hands. A burst of white light flooded her senses, momentarily blinding and disorienting her. She heard Javik shout "Commander! Get back!", as if from far away, before his voice was drowned out by the noise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *A/N: Bonus Power = Barrier. Whether or not it is a good tactical move for an infiltrator, I decided for Shepard to have learned Barrier as it would make the most sense for her to be able to craft a small one that acts like a surfboard.


	3. The Vision

_I feel my drowsiness leaving me, my sensations returning. I open my eyes. I squint at the white light. It is beginning to fade. Where did it come from? I want to remember, but my head hurts as soon as I try. Why? I can remember everything before it. I think back to what Images are beginning to appear. I remember. I was running from a man trying to mate with me. I did not want him to. Then I hear a noise above me. A strange silver cloud is descending. The man chasing me stops and looks up in fright. He shouts and runs away. I feel something pinch my neck and I cannot remember the rest. Things are moving around me, things in white and blue. They are blurry. I sit up and my world spins. I reach out to steady myself and suddenly a presence is there, supporting me. I blink and suddenly my vision focuses. I look up. A strange creature in strange coverings is touching me. His eyes are the colour of new leaves but have a light to them, like if you covered only the brightest part of one of the moons in the night sky and look at what is left. Something straw-coloured that looks like fur is covering his head. It falls down past his shoulders. His face has no fur and is dark, with small, light lines on the top of it. They remind me of plant roots. Two things are sticking out of the top of his face. They look hard and are curved. I scream and try to run, but my body does not respond right. I hear him speak to me. I cannot understand. He sounds friendly, but urgent. I do not like it. I hate it! I yell at him. "Leave me alone!" But my rage disappears when I feel a slight pressure on my arm._

_When I wake up, the strange creature is back. He sits at the edge of my sleeping place. Waiting. I do not attempt to run this time. I do not want to go back to sleep anymore. I want to know what is happening to me, where I am. I ask him this. He seems to understand me, but when he replies, I do not understand his language. He points to himself. "Ard'oro". I mimic him, pointing to myself. "Eletania."_

_I gradually become aware that I am in a strange village of my people. I recognize almost everything from our way of life, but everybody acts strangely here. They all do things the strange creatures ask of them, like planting things all in a row and tending them. But they are not forced to. Days roll into nights and back into days. I meet two of the other strange creatures. Ard'oro announces them to us. They are a man who calls himself "E'ranech" and a woman who calls herself "Eng'agea". I learn how to keep track of and recall how many possessions I have. They call it 'counting'. When I have an argument with someone over stealing one of them, I used to hit them to show them my dominance. But now... I am beginning to think there is a better way. The strange creatures have been showing me how to... assert... myself but without hearing the snap of a carapace. And my people here have learned to... request... and not just take what they want from me. I have begun to do this too. Sometimes I forget. I turn away to take a few deep breaths before dealing with the thief. My glance takes me to where E'ranech is. He is acting oddly. I catch him looking over his shoulder at the other instructors as he taps all... ten of his fingers on a small metal glowing device. He slips it into his pocket as Ard'oro begins to glance his way. E'ranech is now looking over a group of children nearby. Ard'oro smiles and looks away. I furrow my brow. I thought it looked like he was sneaking. I shrug and am about to look away, but then I catch him sneaking another glance in Ard'oro's direction before backing off quickly and darting around the hut furthest from the center of the settlement. Does he need to relieve himself? The thief taps me on the shoulder. All the anger I once felt is gone. I tell her that I forgive her but will require her to ask before taking from this moment and all the moments that come after. She smiles, seeming to understand and leaves. I look back in the direction E'ranech disappeared in once more. Should I tell someone?_

_I am exploring most of the village today. We are told that it is okay but not to wander far. Some have, but the watchers bring them back. I do not see much of these people but they always make sure we do not wander too far. Some of my kind are leaving today, going back to the places they came from. They are taken in a large group far outside of the village toward a strange large rock in the middle of a low, grassy area. There is something beyond this rock, I am certain. One day, I was wandering where the grassy area began. I wanted to know what was beyond it, so I climbed a nearby tree. That was when I saw it - very big rocks and on the other side, a tall shiny thing with a large shiny ball on top. I think there were more tall shiny things in a circle around it. I could not see well but it could make out four. After looking at these, I tried to look as far as I could. I saw a thin, blue line. I listened. I could hear strange birdcalls and the sound of crashing water. The kind you hear when water is falling from a high place. Then I heard voices to my right, below me. I hid behind the tree trunk and I saw some of my kind coming from the village. Ard'oro and two other instructors were leading them. I was not seen. But I was not supposed to be there. A watcher had not come for me. So I watched them cross the grassy area. They came to the rocks and nothing happened for a while. But as I thought to climb down, a strange sound came from the shiny metal object and a light went toward the sky. It was very bright, the colour of a setting sun. I stared at it for a long time. Then I heard a noise below me. A watcher was looking right at me. He did not look happy._

_One day, some of the other children and I are asked to form a circle around a body of water. It is shallow, but we are all eyeing it nervously. We fear water. Water gets in our wings, weighing us down and suffocating those who have fallen into its grasp. Eng'agea demonstrates what we will be doing. She walks to the shore. I admire her grace with only two toes to walk with. Maybe it is because her slim legs are toned and are always slightly bent. She wades out waist deep. We fear for her, calling her to come back, but she just smiles. She is happy? She is not right in the head. She lowers herself - we all gasp together - and then she... begins moving with a soft skill across the water. She is not sinking! I look closer, craning my neck. She is moving her arms up and down, exaggerated so that we are able to see. Afterwards, she comes back toward us. I feel her gaze settle on me and I try very hard not to look away, but I am sensing what is coming next. The dread is making my breath come in short gasps. "Come here, little one," she says in that wonderfully melodic voice. "You will be the first to swim. Do not fear, for I will be with you." Her body is telling me that she is sincere, so I clamp down my fear and bravely stride out to meet her. The water tickles me. I stop at her side. "Are you ready, Eletania?" She talks softly in my ear. I nod. "Yes." She smiles and lowers me into the water, keeping a hand under my stomach. That makes me feel better; she will not let go. I strain to keep my neck up. "Relax," she says, "and move your arms up and down, like this," she demonstrates again. I do as she tells me. I am beginning to rise and I get excited. Then I realize that she has released her hand. I panic. "Relax, Eletania! Just keep moving." I cough water out of my mouth. I do as she says and find that I am... floating! It takes a lot of effort, but I am doing it! I HAVE CONQUERED THE WATER! I manage to look up at Eng'agea. Her face is framed by the pale, long, curved 'horns'. Her eyes are bright in contrast to the dark 'hair' falling around her pale shoulders. She is smiling and laughing, showing her white, even teeth. She is very beautiful when she looks like that. I feel warmth in my chest._

_It is cold today. I am awake early. Something has been bothering me. I have been noticing E'ranech and Ard'oro arguing every so often. But yesterday, in particular, when I was going to visit Ard'oro in his hut, I heard raised voices. E'ranech thundered. Ard'oro smoothened. I thought to myself that someone needs a 'peacekeeping' lesson. E'ranech stormed angrily out of the tent, almost bumping into me. He looked at me, and I recall being scared to death at the look in his eyes. He sneered and stalked off when he saw Ard'oro emerge from the tent. I looked back at Ard'oro. He looked very sad and tired in that moment, from the way his eyes creased. But as soon as he spotted me, a wide, warm smile appeared on his face. I am amazed at his person... no, I mean to say his 'inner strength' as they called it, remembering my 'peacekeeping' lessons. "What is it you need, little Eletania?" He asked in his always-kind voice. I am now outside my hut in the growing light. I had to tread lightly so I did not wake the others. I made sure Eng'agea did not notice. Now I am on a hill several steps away from the edge of the village. I am admiring the growing light, all of the colours stretching across the sky. That is when I spot a small, dark object growing larger. I watch it curiously. It is coming towards me and I can see that it is something very large. I do not like it. It stops coming closer and lands at the bottom of the hill. I can see strange markings on it. I do not understand..._ But here, _Shepard_ could understand and her consciousness struggled to assert itself. She perceived the confusion of the young Prothean and her own subconscious knowledge at the same time. The ship's name read: Mamihlapinatapai. _A fire comes out of the bottom of it, blue at the top, going yellow at the bottom. It hovers for a moment and then lands. I find I am too curious - or maybe too frightened - to move. So I watch._

_Many strange new creatures step down from the dark object. They are pale with smooth, rounded heads and long, thick... arms?... dangling from their faces. They have long, thin arms attached to their shoulders and long, thin legs to match. Their bodies are covered in a strange, shiny material. Some have a faint yellow light that hovers over it. I look them all over. There are... 19 and four more... 20... 20 and 1 is 21... so 23? Yes, I think that is it. Three more figures are coming out of the craft now. I recognize one as E'ranech. The other two are carrying something a little smaller than themselves. I recognize it as the shape of one of the instructors. It is Ard'oro! I watch as they throw him to the ground. I swell with anger. They are yelling harsh things at him. I am not able to understand_ _***** _ _. He responds in a calm voice, despite their words. I catch snatches of it. "... thought highly of you, E'ranech... keep your deal... serve in their empire... kill me, but do not harm the others and... Protheans... valuable assets!" Harsh laughter comes from a soldier who spoke to him. He looks the meanest of them all. E'ranech looks white. A flicker blue. Yes, it is the blue light that frightens and awes me most. I see the soldier lift Ard'oro into the air with this blue light. For a brief moment, I am consumed in wonder. But that moment comes crashing down as swiftly as Ard'oro's body does. I scream in grief and rage at the sight of his now lifeless body. Their large, round eyes snap in my direction and I panic. I run for my life. I must warn the others! I hear shouts and people in my pursuit. It feels just like before my time at this village, when I was running from that male. I cannot run fast enough. They are gaining fast. But I manage to reach the first hut and scream all the air out of my lungs. I am tripped by one of 'them'. 'It' looks at me with those terrifying large eyes and leans over me, ready to strike. But the blow never comes. A streak of blue and the man is tossed off of me. I turn my head and see Eng'agea. She is fierce, snarling. More instructors are running from the huts. They look scared and surprised. Eng'agea is covered in blue light as she throws it at the intruders._

_A pause in the fight. She looks at me sadly and urges me to run. Something inside me clenches in grief. I know what this means. I want to stay by her side, but something also tells me that it would make her sadder. I run and my grief is flowing on my face. It hurts to breathe. Other instructors are getting my kind out of the huts and away from the village toward the grassy field. I know where they are taking us. I shout. I do not want to go. I want to go back to Eng'agea. To help her. But I am grabbed by one of the instructors. "Eletania, child, you must come with us. Quickly now!" I am pulled against my will, I kick and scream, telling him I must help Eletania. He only looks sadly at me, ushering me across the field and toward the same place where I had seen the long pole of light stretching to the sky many 'days' ago. It is glowing that strange 'orange' colour like the time before. Only it looks much brighter and scarier in the dark sky. I twist to look back once more at Eng'agea and the other instructors fighting at her side. She is the most beautiful I have ever seen her, a light in the surrounding darkness. Her light suddenly flashes in a circle of brilliance and then goes out._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *A/N: For this story, I am going to assume that the Protheans were able to decipher the Inusannon language, but that they had no way of accurately conceptualising the phonetics just as we have no way of accurately conceptualising the phonetics of Linear B, for example. So, Shepard can read, but not speak or understand the Inusannon language. Conversely, Shepard is able to understand only the Thoi'han phoenetics through Eletania's sensory ability, which is able to be carried over to Shepard through the memory transference through the cipher.


	4. You Do Know How To Swim?

When she awoke, her vision was blurred, but she could tell that Javik was hovering over her. She felt wetness on her face and realized that she had been crying. She blinked away the liquid, its drops falling down the sides of her temples, where she could feel three soft pressure points. Javik's face came into focus then. If it were not for the fact that some of his alien expressions continued to elude her, she would have guessed that the fluttering of his ridges and the furrow—or something like that—of the part of the carapace between his eyes meant that he was very worried. His eyes followed the arc of her tears and one of his hands lifted to gently wipe the liquid away with a digit. Feeling somewhat embarrassed, she rallied herself.

"Ugh," she groaned as she blinked up at him. "How long was I out for?" Her voice was raw.

"A few minutes," Javik replied.

"Figures. You were right. I'm sorry, Javik, I should have listened to you." She expected him to follow up on that, chastising her in the usual high-handed way he dealt with everything. From the way his visage darkened and he opened his mouth, the onslaught of caustic ire certainly seemed imminent. But instead, Javik seemed to arrest himself and only thrummed gruffly in agreement. "What is that odd saying you humans use, 'curiosity killed the cat'?"

She laughed lightly. "Yes, that's exactly right," she affirmed and made to sit up, but the three digits resting on each of her temples applied light resistance. "Don't. You will have a bad headache. Let the effects subside, first."

"Effects?" She blanched and started anyway, but instantly regretted it. She yelped and collapsed back down, head swimming and throbbing badly. Javik's hands came up to her temples again and began massaging them, throat thrumming gruffly.

"There is no need to worry, Commander," Javik soothed, beginning to massage her temples. She felt the throbbing lessen and— _oh_ —those ministrations felt _so_ good. Her eyes became half-lidded and a small moan escaped her lips. She hoped that he would pardon the indiscretion, but there was absolutely no way that she could not bottle it in. Hell, she longed to groan in pleasure but knew that would be wildly inappropriate, so she simply enjoyed it in silence as Javik continued talking. "That object is a Thoi'han sphere. I remember it now from the memories in the Echo shard and from stories some of my people used to tell. Their writing was not preserved since the Inusannon ultimately triumphed and wiped them out, so very little knowledge of their race survived into my cycle. But now I do know for certain that they had the same technology as our beacons and used it similarly." At her puzzled look, he supplemented, "When I saw that you could not remove yourself from the sphere, I tried to help you, but touching your body meant I was also exposed to the same energy. As you are not Thoi'han, and I suspect they thought your species too primitive for study, it needed to adapt your physiology to its transference process.

"Hence, the unfortunate side effects," she added. He nodded thoughtfully. "I have not experienced any... though, I am puzzled as to why."

"Well, I assumed it was because the Thoi'han had... contact with your people and so their technology might recognize—" She tried to put it as diplomatically as possible, but as soon as she said 'contact with your people', Javik's eyes flew wide. "You did not see the vision of the prothean child, did you?"

"No! What did you see?" He asked this urgently, fingers already firmly cradling her head. Their eyes locked and she showed him her vision. When it was over, he looked astonished, dare she say, aghast. "Yes, that is not what I saw... but nonetheless, it is..." He unconsciously let his fingers slide off her face while considering his next words. But as soon as he did, the throbbing came back, making her wince. Javik's eyes snapped back to hers and resumed the massage. "I will have to think on it some more," he continued softly. She wondered what the thought of the Thoi'han uplifting the Protheans as the Protheans had done to the Asari and if he shared the same anguish she did over the fate of Eng'agea. But she let it be for now.

"I can understand that," she said, simply. He looked at her curiously. There was sincerity and weight in her words. She did not miss his look and decided to share something she had not thought about in a long time. "You know, I never told anybody this before," she began, garnering a flicker of interest in the prothean's gaze, "but I had a very similar experience to this one, a few years back, during that same mission Garrus was talking about earlier on—" here she paused and choked up a little, "—Eletania." She realized the shared name between the prothean and the planet and wondered if there was a connection between Javik having been shown her vision on the planet, Eletania, and her being shown the vision of the prothean, Eletania. Now _that_ was probably a mystery she'd never solve. The sound of soft rumbling came from Javik's chest and throat. For some reason, she felt instantly soothed by it.

"Yes," his affirmed, his voice low and grave. "I experienced your memory. It was very disorienting... I was you on the planet surface approaching the orb and then I experienced living as one of your ancestors but, at the same time, this was overlaid with your perspective." A look of disgust crossed his face and he added, "I was covered in hair and animal fur." Shepard chuckled at this garnering an unamused look from the prothean. But another thought crossed his mind and seemed to soften his features. He seemed to struggle with what to say next. All this interplay she watched with avid fascination. She could not help it; she had never seen him so openly display his emotions before. "Though... it was a humbling experience," was all he left her with. She smiled up at him softly, in understanding, and placed her hand on his arm. He looked at it, but did not shrug it off as she supposed he might.

After a moment, he spoke again. "Why did you not tell anyone about that vision, especially the asar—Dr. T'soni?"

"Well... without the transference ability that you possess, I was at much of a loss as to how to fully relate the experience. And I guess since I thought that this might be a mystery I'd never solve, I just filed it away." She then added as an afterthought, "I'm glad I was able to share it with someone after all." He hummed thoughtfully at her words. She took it as a return of the sentiment.

"And speaking of, Liara would just _love_ this." Shepard could picture her asari friend now, eyes wide jumping up and down in glee, tapping away at her console with dizzying speed, or perhaps hugging her and tackling her to the ground. _Hm, actually that last bit would be nice._ She would make sure she'd break the news to Liara, personally. "Perhaps the Inusannon actually got the technology for the beacons from the Thoi'han," Shepard suggested after a moment.

"Perhaps," Javik said thoughtfully. His hands drifted slowly from her temples down the side of her face before pulling away altogether. He knelt on one knee and then lifted himself up to standing position. She waited for a moment to see if he would extend a hand to help her up. When he did not, she asked him if he was going to. Javik stoically replied, "No. You have two legs. Or did you forget how to use them?" Shepard huffed at this, but rose to her feet. "Always the gentleman," she quipped, sarcastically.

They were silent for a few moments and then Shepard asked, "Javik. You _do_ know how to swim, right?"

"Of course," he responded casually.

"Good." The reply came on a devious laugh.

He should have known.

But it was much too late for him to stop her from tackling him off of the cliff into the deep water below.

When a coughing, sputtering prothean bobbed up, all four golden eyes snapped to Shepard's, blazing with annoyance. Shepard blinked at him, completely unfazed. "Garrus warned you. _That_ was for your earlier comment about my 'cousins'. We primitives stick together. Species solidarity."

"I will have my revenge for this, _primitive_!" Javik roared in answer, his voice heavily tinged with the same harsh flanging that Shepard had only heard once before, when Victory announced it was rerouting life support power from the other stasis pods to Javik's.

Shepard just continued to stare down at him placidly. Cat-like. _Whatever happens, totally worth it!_ She grinned, internally. She had already come to terms with having a death wish. She built a goddamn suicide squad, after all. So needling him a little more did not even compare. Or so she figured. Flashing him a feral grin, she shot back his own line earlier: "You can certainly try!"

This, of course, garnered even more ire from the Prothean. An intense wave of green light flickered across his skin as a vicious snarl erupted. Shepard chuckled as she watched him as he plowed through the water with a determination she'd only seen him use while fighting Reaper forces, hell-bent on reaching her and then doing God-knows-what to her to exact his vengeance. The thought made her taut with delicious anticipation. Presently, he was scrambling up the rocks over the wet seaweed. She could not help but howl in laughter when he, in his haste to reach her, slipped and fell face first onto the seaweed, sliding all the way back down to where he started. And she damn near hyperventilated when she heard his dark thoughts being muttered from below.

However, Javik certainly made up for lost time by bounding up the rocks. By the time he hauled himself up, Shepard had pulled herself together and was calmly waiting for him near the edge of the precipice. If he had not been so flustered, perhaps he would've been able to catch the sparkle in her eyes. Instead, he ran forward, biotics flaring. Just as he was about to reach her, Shepard cloaked and rolled out of the way… Javik had no chance to correct his trajectory and careened, full-tilt, over the edge.

She lay on the cliff in stitches listening the sound of Javik's frustrated bellows as he fell into the water once again.

Suddenly, the thrill of being hunted settled on her. _I really should go_ , she thought, since her position was no longer of any strategic value. While Javik was still submerged, she allowed her cloak to recharge while making her way down from the cliff. Once he surfaced, she activated it again and high-tailed it back to the rendezvous. Shouts of "Commander, show yourself!", "Come at me, primitive!", and "COWARD!" floated up to her over the sound of the crashing waves as she slipped into the shoreline canopy.

ooooooooooooooooo

Garrus cocked his head. He had been cleaning his sniper rifle when, all of a sudden, he heard shouts coming from the direction of the beach. He stiffened and became edgy in case it spelled trouble. But then he recognized Javik's voice. Curious, he was about to rise and go see what the commotion was about, when he heard the sound of someone running toward the camp. Presently, the Commander came rushing out of the bushes grinning like a madman. She stopped next to him, shaking with laughter.

"Commander?" Garrus queried with mixed amusement and confusion. "…Where's Javik?"

Shepard pointed in the direction of the beach, still wheezing partly from sprinting and partly from laughter. Through bursts of laughter, he got the gist of the story and he chimed in, too, with his own.

"You are so asking for it when he returns."

"Oh, we'll see about that," she replied confidently. Garrus mused at how much she looked at the fresh N7 graduate that he met several years ago on the Citadel, the same glow back in her face.

Suddenly they heard rustling coming closer. Only, it began to sound more like snapping branches. Shepard yipped. "You didn't see me, okay?" She winked, and scurried onto the top of a boulder, hiding herself from view.

Garrus winked back and he returned to attending his rifle just as the livid Prothean emerged from the treeline. One glance in his direction and told Garrus that he should not even attempt to look Javik straight in the eye.

"Where is the Commander?" It was not even a question, really. His icy tone was a perfect, deadly contrast to the fire in his eyes.

"Haven't seen her… you know that she can cloak." Garrus drawled idly.

"You are lying!" Javik snarled, stepping close to Garrus, making even the stoic turian wince. "She was here! I can smell it! I can also smell your deceit, _turian_ , or did you forget I am capable of higher functioning than you primitives?"

Not wanting to drag poor Garrus further into this monster of a situation she created, Shepard silently slipped off of the boulder and presented herself. "I'm right here, Javik."

Javik's eyes snapped to hers and he stepped away from the fascinated turian, stalking toward her, but slowly this time. Shepard smiled and hummed approvingly. "I see that you adapt quickly." Javik's look was a dark one indeed. "You cannot escape my vengeance, Commander. I _will_ have it."

Shepard sighed. "Well, I can't have you offing me in my sleep, now can I? Reapers to fight, battles to win and all that. So... let's make this a 'peacekeeping' lesson."

Garrus became confused at the look she gave Javik when she said 'peacekeeping'. "Am I... missing something?" But his question went unanswered. For the moment.

Javik smirked. "Nice try, Commander, but I know the difference between peacekeeping and bluffing. No, you started this and _I_ will finish it."

"Heh." Shepard grinned devilishly. "I was counting on that."

A fiery look blazed between them. Javik was the first to break it, springing toward her with frightening speed, but Shepard had calculated this and dove to the right at the last second. He whirled around… only to grasp at air. Javik seethed. The Commander smiled. Garrus wished he had dextro-amino popcorn.

Prothean and turian snapped their heads to their left at the sound of her laughter from across the clearing. "Over here!" She smiled brazenly and broke into a run for the beach. Javik snarled after her. "Try not to kill each other!" Garrus called after them. Once alone again, he just shook his head and went back to cleaning his rifle.

Meanwhile, cat and mouse continued with Javik catching up to Shepard and the pair exchanging a few blows only to end with Shepard cloaking again. Javik had had just about enough by the time they got to the beach. He was a panting mess while Shepard had barely broken a sweat. Most of his bloodlust having been spent chasing her, he was now able to consider switching tactics by letting her come to him. He huffed. "I am disappointed, Shepard." Normally, Shepard would brush this off, but something about the tone of his voice and hearing him call her 'Shepard' instead of 'Commander', for the first time, struck a chord with her. She remained silent, but when he did not continue, she grew impatient for clarification. "Oh?" His eyes snapped to where he heard the noise, but he made no move yet. "I judged you capable of easily defeating me one-on-one. Instead, you keep retreating behind your cloak instead of facing me. That is not strategy; it is cowardice." He turned to leave.

Shepard positioned herself right behind Javik, dropping her cloak. "As you wish." Javik smiled and made to turn but suddenly his legs were no longer beneath him. The next thing he knew, he found himself suddenly flat on his back, the air knocked out of him, his arms pinioned and a knee planted firmly onto the midline of his chest. Shepard was above him looking down at him with victorious glee. "What was that you said back on Sur'Kesh?" She let arrogance positively drip from her teasing lilt. "'Idle threats are empty threats'?"

She expected him to start on her at this, but Javik did not stir. Though his strategy had not worked as he'd hoped, he realized that what he said had affected her, at least. So he decided to simply staring at her, making himself look bored to throw her off even more. She did not let on if she _was_ thrown, but he waited patiently, coiled to spring when she would begin to show signs of tiring or confusion. Several moments passed and though Shepard felt that she had him firmly subdued, doubt eventually did begin to gnaw at her. More moments passed. He watched her supreme visage slowly begin to reveal the tiniest cracks of insecurity. Her eyes began to rove slightly, but still he did not move. Her right index finger and thumb readjusted. Still, he remained silent. Shepard began to reconsider her position. _Perhaps I should get off and_ — She never finished the thought.

It was in that precise moment Javik saw the opening he had been waiting for. Shepard's eyes had lost their focus on him for just a brief moment. But that was all he needed to launch a sudden counterattack. He shot her off of him with a biotic blast and turned the tables.

Arms went above her head, legs snapped hers closed, and a chest plastered itself to hers. Javik loomed above her with a wicked grin.

"Do you find anything _idle_ about this?" She could feel the puffs of air from every word.

He did not mean for it to sound sexy, truly he did not and Shepard knew this. However… his deep, richly thrumming voice… their closeness… the _way_ they were positioned… and, hell, the fact that he himself could not help the huskiness that crept into his voice… well, that pretty much made Shepard's breathing halt and all thought processes stop. And she could not help the husky "No…" escape from her lips.

Much to her dismay, Javik seemed to pick up on this—if raising his left eye ridge was any indication. But instead of then showing disgust like she thought he would, he smirked deliciously, lowering his lips to be inches from her own. All of Shepard's focus was on those smooth lips, and he parted him in reply but was cut off by Garrus's arrival.

"Commander, Cortez is a minute away from—" came the flanged voice, which arrested suddenly when Garrus spotted them. Shepard felt Javik stiffen as she tore her gaze from Javik's lips to Garrus. The turian wore an expression Shepard swore she'd never seen before: slack-jawed. And then she realized what a position she was caught in. Shepard let out a soft chuckle against Javik's collarbone. "It's alright, Garrus. Javik and I were just sparring."

"Uh-huh…" He did not sound at _all_ convinced. "Yeah... well, shuttle… Cortez… five minutes…" He backed away, awkwardly, and headed back to the rendezvous.

When Garrus was gone, Javik lifted himself off of her. Shepard felt the sudden loss of his warmth keenly, though she did not want to admit it. She realized this train of thought could make things very awkward between her and Javik, and she wanted to avoid that at all costs. So she just smiled casually at Javik and tossed her head in the direction Garrus headed in.

But as she brushed past him, he snaked an arm around her waist and whispered warmly in her ear, "this is not over, Commander."

**~ THE END ~**


End file.
